RE: Looking for a Mil Media site

["Stephen McLaughlin" <sMcLaughlin@xxxxxxxxxx>]

As the nominal "manager" of the San Francisco Public Library's
historical photo collection project, I'm very glad to hear that people
are using and liking the site! ("Manager" in my case means I go to the
meetings; but the real work is done by our small staff -- Mike Levy,
Adam Markosian and Ada Ma; in addition to scanning and cataloging the
images Adam and Ada also do most of the web-development of the site. Our
Photo Archivist, Pat Akre, and the S.F. History Center manager and
archivist, Susan Goldstein, do the photo selection and provide direction
for the project).

The project was started back in the early 1990s, originally on a system
called "FutureArts" that was developed by a company in cooperation with
DEC, who supplied the hardware for our then-DRA system. That system had
some very nifty features but one huge drawback -- it was not
web-compatible. We eventually managed to convert the database to a MARC
format and were able to make it a database on our DRA system using 856
field URL links to the images. It meant losing some functionality, but
we gained a much broader audience. When we converted to Millenium in
August of this year, the database was once again converted to a new
system, but the files of images remain as before, "outside" Millenium.
This explains why we're using the "dust jacket" method for the
thumbnails, rather than doing it through Mil Media. We are looking at
converting to Mil Media, which offers some attractive features, but
haven't made up our minds yet. There are some conversion issues that
need to be resolved before we can bring our 34,000+ images into Mil
Media.

Right now we're looking for ways to incorporate a "Tell us about this
photo" feature, so that patrons can tell us more about images -- we get
a fairly regular flow of people who are either correcting our
descriptions ("You say this photo shows the intersection of X and Y
streets, but those streets run PARALLEL to each other!") or identifying
events and people. Any ideas about how to do this would be welcome!

Right now we're scanning ship images (a project I've been slyly
suggesting to our archivists for a few years now, and they finally caved
in!), so anyone interested in nautical images might want to play with
the database (try entering the subject search "ships" -- but bear in
mind we're only in the B's at the moment). We also have a nifty display
on the Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915 coming up soon --
you'll be able to click on a big map of the fairgrounds and see photos
of the pavilions and exhibitions in that area. A sort of online walking
tour of the Exposition. Most of the design and linking work on this
feature has been finished, so I'm hoping we can get it up on the web
soon.

Sorry for running on about the project, but I do think it's one of the
niftier things we're doing, and not just because I am tenuously
associated with it! I'd be grateful if any older Innovative users have
suggestions for improving the site; we're still learning the system, so
there are probably cool things we could be doing that we're not.

Steve McLaughlin
San Francisco Public Library
smclaughlin@xxxxxxxxxx


-----Original Message-----
From: Jeanette Berard [mailto:JBERARD@xxxxxxxxxx] 
Sent: Friday, December 19, 2003 8:21 AM
To: innopac@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: Looking for a Mil Media site

Very nice site, but not what I was looking for - the one I had seen has
a _copy_ of the bib info literally in as part of the full size image
when one clicks to "view image."

The SFPL site is very interesting, in that it seems to use the "book
jacket" view capability instead of the mil media thumbnail.  This is a
pretty creative use, and results in a different type of brief display,
which is quite attractive.

I'd still like to hear from anyone who recognizes the other site!
Happy Friday,
Jeanette


>>> "Schupbach ,Mr William" <w.schupbach@xxxxxxxxxx> 12/19/03
07:56AM >>>
My favourite is the San Francisco Public Library,
http://sflib1.sfpl.org:82/search 

Try searching e.g. golden

Here at the Wellcome Library we are planning something similar for
prints,
 paintings, drawings and photographs etc.  It will probably be ready
in
 January.  In the meantime my colleague Margaret Savage-Jones has
kindly
 said she would be willing to answer queries and give the experimental
site
 address (m.savage-jones@xxxxxxxxxx).

I have the impression that III are under-selling this facility.  It
saves
 an institution the administrative overhead of buying-in another
dedicated
 system, to say nothing of the expense. More important still, it saves
the
 user from having to go into a completely separate system with
different
 search-rules and design. And it permits seamless integration with the
rest
 of the library collection.   That really adds up to something worth
shouting
 about: it's not just about book-jackets.

William Schupbach
Wellcome Library, 183 Euston Road, London NW1 2BE, England
E-mail: w.schupbach@xxxxxxxxxx 
Catalogue: http://catalogue.wellcome.ac.uk 

(British registered charity no. 210183, Trustee registered as no.
2711000)


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